Nablopomo #24

[samandriel]

Only 1 week left of Nablopomo!

I think it's good for me to write; I'll probably continue writing about whatever after.

Yesterday I watched Captain America and was surprised at how much I liked it.

Here's a brief fangirlgasm review.

Edited a day later because I am stupid and forgot to update and was tired.

Basically, this is going to be minorly majorly spoilerific, so proceed with caution!

SO my family is weird and my aunt tends to host Thanksgiving/Christmas/Easter etc, and we almost always watch football (well I ignore it) and then a movie. I managed to talk them into watching Captain America this year, yay, because sometimes it is a seriously stupid movie. Like how many times can you watch an Austin Powers movie before it just gets to be too much?

Anyway.

Second time watching Captain America in like 3 days, but that's okay. The better to condense my thoughts into a review.

Bulleted for your convenience.

• This movie barely (if at all) passes The Bechdel Test. It's something we should all be peripherally aware, especially as girls. I know I've talked about it before, but it's easy to see if a movie/tv show passes and disturbing to see how many don't. Okay, three things the movie (or whatever) must do:
  1. Have more than one female character in it.
  2. The two (or more) female characters must converse
  3. About something other than a man.
  There is really only one named female character in the film (Peggy Carter, the love interest of Captain America, played by Hayley Atwell who looks a scary amount like Billie Piper), although there are a handful of others. The girls who go to the World Expo with Bucky and Steve, the old lady at the front of the antiques store, the stenographer/secretary on the front lines, and the (several) women who snog/want to snog Steve. As well as, of course, the dancers. (One set for Cap, one for Howard.) (OMG, just found out that the girls that go dancing with Bucky are named, of all things, "Bonnie" and "Connie". GAG ME WITH A SPOON.)
  
  
• Although the movie doesn't have a lot of women, there is Peggy, who defies lots of wonderful stereotypes. She's basically the Buffy of the era, fighting to be on the front lines, punching soldiers in the face and NOT BEING CAPTURED. She's also a sharpshooter and definitely her own woman, and more interested in Steve as a person than as a pretty face. (There was even a hint of something between them before Steve became the Cap.)
  
  
• The music is nowhere near as bad as Thor, which was nice. But what's up with "The Star Spangled Man/the man with a plan"? That's some sloppy songwriting, by the same duo who gave us the Mulan songs. (Yes, "I'll Make a Man Out of You", "Reflection", "A Girl Worth Fighting For", etc…)
  
  
• Nice nod/shout-out to the fact that Captain America is in the same 'verse as Thor. Schmidt is using a tesseract ("The jewel of Odin's hoard"…or some such) to power his Valkyrie devices. The tesseract was stored in an old temple, hidden in a carving of Yggdrasil…actually named in the movie, too. It looked a lot like the Winter Casket (?) that Loki tried to steal/have stolen in Thor, so maybe more Dwarven tech? Who knows?
  
  
• I really liked most of the actors in this movie.
  
  
  • Although Tommy Lee Jones' character is kind of an asshat, he's got good reason for it. And his comedic timing is spot-on. He's likable despite not liking Cap.
    
    
  • Hugo Weaving! ILU!!!! I don't know why I like him so much--he's not as attractive, objectively speaking, as Chris Evans or even Sebastian Stan, but I adore him. Here, in V for Vendetta, as Elrond, as Agent Smith….just really like him. (Random aside: my uncle, who really likes movies, totally agreed with me that Karl Urban steals the show whenever he's in a movie. I think he totally upstaged Paul Bettany in Priest, but I don't really like Paul Bettany….and love Karl Urban.)
    
    
  • The Dream Lord whose name I know not. Okay, back from IMDb, he's Toby Jones. (I recognized him immediately as The Dream Lord from that ep of Doctor Who, "Amy's Choice". He's also (one of?) the voices of Dobb, of all things! He's going to be in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Tom HARDY! OMG, can't believe I almost had a post without him. :P ) and Snow White and the Huntsman (with Kristen Stewart--um, only if it gets great reviews) and The Hunger Games. He was also in a more recent version of The Orient Express, with David Suchet for PBS (Mystery!). I like him, in general, but his accent was all over the place in the movie. First he was German (-ish) and then Swiss (-ish) and also French (-ish). Dunno. Maybe on purpose? What nationality is "Zola"? Anyway, really liked that Schmidt had, like, a million opportunities to kill him but he didn't. Yay, an actually intelligent baddie!
    
    
  • Neal McDonough, who has been in lots of things, but is probably most known to me as the Tin Man in the eponymous series. (Wyatt Cain!) Here he's Dum Dum Dugan, and most likely was told to grow that mustache (look it up, please) because he doesn't look that dissimilar from Chris Evans! (And of course the original character has it.)
    (And there are other familiar faces, like
    NOT this guy, but the same guy that's been in like everything else, probably most recognizably as Argus Filch in the HP movies is the 'Tower Keeper' in the movie…Things he's been in: HP, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Ashes to Ashes, The Tudors, The Color of Magic, Hot Fuzz, Blackpool…)
    
• Bucky deserves his own list, but suffice it to say that I love him, and I hope they follow one or more of the continuities that allows him to come back, as either the Winter Soldier or just Bucky. Because he was awesome. Yus.
  
  
• The amazing CGI that transformed Chris Evans into scrawny boy (from built man) was very well done, as was the CGI for Schmidt's Red Skull (it looks like muscles, as opposed to prosthetic. Yay?)
  
  
• Although I understand the need for a hint-at-a-relationship between Cap and Peggy, there wasn't a lot of chemistry (more chemistry between Cap and Iron Man in the 2-minute trailer!) so it feels like puppy love to me. Fine, just leave plenty for Bucky and/or Tony.
  
  
• Have you read A Wrinkle in Time? Then you know that a tesseract (how the hell did Odin/the dwarves contain it?) is a traveling device/equation/thing, so Red Skull is NOT dead. Okay? Kay. Also, he "died" in much the same way that Loki did, and see how well that turned out…
  
  
• Really liked the lack of catchphrases--"What makes you special?"/ "Nothing. I'm just a kid (?) from Brookyln."
  "You just don't give up, do you?" / "Nope." etc.
  

All in all, I liked the movie more than I thought I would, I like that Chris Evans disappears into Cap, even though I think John Barrowman would still be a better Cap. Just 'cuz. Or anyone else, really, even though I agree that Chris Evans does a decent job. Yay.

I liked Peggy but dislike that she's not coming back (probably).

I hope Bucky comes back because I liked what I saw of him.

I hope the new (awesome) tech makes a comeback and gets an explanation.

I hope that Tony's mom/childhood is addressed at some point, but I also hope it isn't addressed because I worry that it would suck/not make sense/etc.

(Also, random usage of Coldplay's "Paradise" for an NFL "Happy Thanksgiving" commercial.)

Wow, long review is long!

What about y'all?

Have you seen Captain America yet?

If so, what did you think?

If not, why not? Want to see it?